Category Archives: Meetings 2015-16

With bunnies, eggs, baskets, candy, it’s easy for the true reason we celebrate Easter to get lost. Here are some easy crafts you can do with your child and then continue to use to explain the resurrection of Jesus and His incredible love for each one of us!

Write one letter of EASTER on each egg. (E on the first egg, A on the second egg, etc.)

Fill each egg with the cooresponding symbol to tell the Resurrection Story (see image)

Optional: make a crafty display for your eggs. (One suggestion, like what Suzanne showed at the meeting: take a block of wood, drill 6 holes, attach green pipe cleaner to each egg, stick eggs in the holes in the wood.)

Yesterday we were blessed to hear from one of our fabulous mentor moms, Amy Ezell, about simple ways to love on our kids. One of her tips was developing our children’s character just by reading to them.

If you’re interested in learning more, here are some resource lists that she has compiled. As always, none of this is intended to cause stress or to imply that you SHOULD be doing this. This is just a resource to refer to if you’re looking for it.

On Thursday, January 21, 2016, MOPS welcomed Cherie Werner. By the end of January, a lot of moms are reconsidering our New Years’ resolutions. 75% of people keep their resolutions past the first week. 71% past 2 weeks. And only 64% make it past one month. Losing weight and shaping up are 2 of the top 5 resolutions every year. But Cherie came to talk about a different kind of shaping up – A Spiritual S.H.A.P.E. Up and Thrive!

S: Spiritually

H: Husbands

A: Accountability

P: Parenting

E: Etcetera

Spiritually: An intimate relationship requires time spent together. “A woman who has been in the presence of her God over and over again will eventually begin to reflect His light and know His ways and hear His voice.” -Sally Clarkson. Spend time with God. Read or listen to His word. Read a verse, a chapter, a book. Try a reading plan on YouVersion app or check out a blog like She Reads Truth. Listen to whatever is true, pure, and lovely: Worship music, sermons via Podcast, or the Bible. Try reading or listening to Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. Then meditate on what you read or hear. Quiet your mind and ask the Holy Spirit for His perspective and direction. And remember to live for an audience of one!

Next thoughts: How are you growing in your faith during this busy season of motherhood?

Husbands: Here are 6 ways to grow with your husband in 2016.

Keep romance alive. Date your mate. Even if your date is only in your backyard after the kids go to bed.

Accountability: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: if either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-10. God wants us to have accountability and mentorship with other women. Here are 6 qualities to look for when searching and praying for a M.E.N.T.O.R.

M: Motivates you to be more Christ-like.

E: Encourages and equips.

N: Never gives up on you or lets you give up on yourself.

T: Tells you the truth, even when it’s difficult.O: Open arms to accept you as you are.

R: Really cares about you and your spiritual growth.

Next thoughts: Do you have a mentor or accountability partner in your life? If not, can you list three possible ladies and pursue them? And who are you mentoring?

Parenting: Here are 6 parenting must-dos for 2016.

Watch your words! They are very powerful.

Have dinner together.

Build a legacy.

Spend time together. Children spell love T-I-M-E.

Have meaningful traditions. Traditions are invaluable as they are part of the glue that holds families together. They also give children a sense of security.

Prepare to eventually let them go! (And prepare them to go.)

Next thoughts: What parenting tip could you implement immediately?

Etcetera: Here are 6 etceteras to do in 2016.

Invest in yourself and grow. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who you have received from God. He is in you. 1 Corinthians 6:19.

Slow down and simplify.

Do what brings you pleasure.

Seek professional help if you are overwhelmed. If you’re at the end of your rope, do more than just hold on.

Eat well.

Exercise.

Next thoughts:

What could you do to invest in yourself?

I will read ___ books in 2016.

I will listen to ___ Podcast or audio books monthly.

I will attend __________ conference to develop my passion for _____________.

How well are you nurturing yourself for your own health? Write down 3 things you will do now for YOU.

Cherie Werner is a mother to 3 daughters (ages 27, 25, & 14). She is passionate about spiritual growth, her husband, and her family. She loves to learn, and believes that the key to true success in relationships is loving others authentically. Cherie is keen on encouraging women in their roles as wives and mothers, It is her desire to help women become aware of the legacy that they want to leave behind by living intentional lives. Writing and speaking is a way for her to share what she has learned along the journey. She serves on the Advisory Boards of Elisa Pulliam’s More to Be and Sally Clarkson’s Whole-hearted & Mom Heart Ministries. Last year she received her certification as a life coach. You can learn more athttp://thewerners.org/.

Ridge MOPS kicked off the new year hearing from Brad Thomas, Lead Pastor of Austin Ridge Bible Church. Brad laid out a vision for A Year of Peace.

Peace is freedom from worry and living in joy.

Worry is the inordinate anxiety for something that may or may not occur. We all tend to worry about things we can’t change or do anything about. In fact, on average

70% of what we worry about is either in the past or not even able to happen

12% of what we worry about is our health

10% of what we worry about is people or things we have no control over.

That means only 8% of what we worry about is anything we can even try to affect.

The word “worry” comes from the Old English word that meant “to strangle” and the Greek word that meant “double minded.” So worry is literally a conflicted mind which is strangling you. Worry makes us incapable of being wise.

Jesus with Mary and Martha

Joy is not simply happiness. It is not the result of our external circumstances. Joy is an attitude of knowing who is in charge. And of knowing that He is good and all powerful, that He is stronger than your circumstances.

What does Jesus say to do with worry? When worry sets in, get yourself with God. In Luke Chapter 10, when Jesus visits Mary and Martha’s home, as Martha worries about the house being perfect and Mary rests at Jesus’s feet, Jesus says to Martha “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed – or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

How can you get yourself with God when worry sets in? Turn to His word. Psalm 34 is a good psalm for when you’re worried.

Verse 4.I sought the Lord, and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears. The answer may be “not yet,” but God always answers.

Verse 7. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and delivers them.

Verse 9.Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints, for those who fear Him have no lack! If God’s answer is ‘no’ or ‘not yet,’ then you don’t need it yet.

Verse 18. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Verse 19.Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. Not some. All.

Are you a worrier? Are you an “if only”? You need to know that your joy has nothing to do with your circumstances. In life, something WILL go wrong. Decide now where your joy comes from. If your joy comes from your circumstances, then you WILL be devastated when something goes wrong. What are common “joy stealers”? –

Living in the past.

Living in the future. God is the great I am. Not I was or I will be.

Stress. How do you handle it? What does it look like for you to release stress to the Lord?

Fear. Fear is the presence of danger or the thought of the presence of danger.

When fear sets in, get yourself with God. It’s hard to be worried when you’re focused on God. How did Daniel survive the lion’s den? Daniel was in a foreign country, harassed, and then there was a law that you couldn’t pray to anyone but the king. But Daniel openly prayed to God. The king loved Daniel but had to give him the punishment of putting him in the lion’s den. The king was torn up about it and didn’t sleep at all that night, even though he was safe and sound. But Daniel, inside the den, slept great. And in the morning, he was still alive. Why did Daniel sleep great in the lion’s den?

How can you get yourself with God when fear sets in? Pray.

Do you treat your prayer life like 3 wishes???

Prayer is ongoing dialogue with God. Pray without ceasing. Prayer is not rubbing the lamp for genie wishes.

Setting your mind on Jesus brings joy and worry-free living.

Jesus tells us: If you have your sights set on me, you should not be fearful.

It is impossible for God to be cruel. So, if you are knocked against a rock, know that God has a purpose.

Finally, remember the effect stress and worry will have on your children. Stress and worry can be passed down and modeled. Maybe some of us inherited our current methods of handling stress and worry, but that doesn’t mean we have to pass it down to our children. Do you go to God throughout the day with everything? Or do you go to God when nothing else works?

“I have learned to kiss the wave that strikes my face because it pushes me closer to the Lord.” -Charles Spurgeon.

This year we were blessed to have 4 experienced moms share their family Christmas traditions with us. They shared some educational traditions, some easy traditions, and even some tradition fails! Above all, they each reminded us to give ourselves grace. Don’t stress. The best traditions are simple and short, especially if you want to keep your littles’ attention. Here’s a quick overview of the traditions they shared and a few extras, too. Take a moment and share your favorite traditions with us on Facebook!

Family Advent Wreath: A wreath with 5 candles. One for each of the 4 Sundays before Christmas and then one for Christmas Day. Maybe keep it on the kitchen table or dining room table. Here is an example of one family’s Advent Wreath from the Houston Moms Blog. Age to start: 1 or 2 years old.

One Day Traditions #onedaytradition

On Christmas morning, talk about the reason we get/give gifts. Gifts symbolize God’s greatest gift – Jesus and how he leads us to eternal life. Have each child pick one gift that they receive and unwrap on Christmas morning, to give to a family in need. This gives you the opportunity to explain to children that we don’t just give away our leftover, used toys that we don’t want anymore, but also our new and highly-desired toys, because God doesn’t give us His leftover blessings – He gives us His best; He gave us His only son. Age to start: 3 or 4 years old.

Simple Traditions that Your Kids Will Remember #keepitsimple

Decorating the Christmas Tree on a specific day (like Saturday after Thanksgiving). Any age!

Prophecy envelopes: make 25 envelopes, each holding a piece of paper that has an Old Testament prophecy on one side and the New Testament fulfillment on the other side. Then make your family sit and listen to one each day! What could go wrong? (Apparently this only lasted one year!)

Christmas Nail: Making a Christmas ornament out of a really big nail, like the one that would have been used to crucify Jesus, and linking Christmas to the crucifixion. A little intense, but true. Maybe for older kids?!? One of our 4 experienced-mom speakers, Carrie Runn, said her own daughter called this a tradition fail. But she remembered it, and that’s the point, right moms? (If your nail is still missing, Carrie, you can buy one here for just $4.99!)

Advent Activities #adventactivity

Finding Treasure (Age to start: older preschool)

Supplies (per kid):

Tin can painted/covered in black (“Can of Darkness”)

Small treasure boxes (example: shoe box with Dollar Store prizes)

Flash light (“The Light of Christ”)

Instructions: At night, hide treasure boxes in the house. Turn off all the lights. Hand kids the “can of darkness.” Tell them to use the can to find the treasure. When they can’t (because all the lights are off and the dark can doesn’t help you see in the dark), hand them each a flashlight which will help them see in the dark to find the treasure. Moral: Darkness doesn’t take you to the treasures of heaven, only the light of Christ does.

When I was growing up, there were a lot of years that my mom and I didn’t have extra money at Christmas time. Being a savvy single mom, she incorporated some traditions that were easy on the wallet.

Epiphany Gifts: One year she told me we were exchanging gifts on Epiphany (Jan 6, also called Three Kings Day) because that’s when the Wise Men brought gifts to Jesus. Turns out her actual motivation was hitting After-Christmas Sales!

Santa Brings the Christmas Tree: When my mom was growing up with 8 siblings, they were also tight on money. Their tradition was that Santa brought the Christmas Tree, which meant my Grandpa could get one on sale on Christmas Eve! He and my Grandma must have stayed up all night decorating it!

So what are your favorite Christmas traditions? Which ones have you tried with your littles this year? Did you have a #everydaytradition that turned into a #traditionfail sometime around December 7? Or December 2? Share with us on Facebook in The Ridge MOPS private Facebook group using the above hashtags!

Above all, remember the tradition your kids will cherish the most is a non-stressed mom who rests in the love of Christ knowing the perfect Christmas has already happened. It’s not in the perfect presents, or perfect decorations, or perfect meal. The perfect Christmas already happened when Jesus was born.

Merry Christmas. We’ll see you back on Thursday, January 7, 2016! (Don’t forget to register!!)

First things first. Let’s get something straight. You are not going to be perfect. Sorry, not sorry. There is no perfect mom. You have to let yourself off the hook. We all know this. Sometimes our husbands “remind” us that we should “just chill” (not helpful, hon). But if you’re like me, you struggle with the HOW to.

Finding yourself trapped in a negative thought pattern? Maybe you feel lonely, or guilty, or shameful, or angry, or left out? You know that God wants you to have unexplainable joy despite circumstances but that just seems like a bumper sticker slogan to you most days? There’s good news: These negative thought patterns can be undone, they can be rewired.

First, we have to have to recognize the right battle.

Second, we have to create the right thinking.

Third, we will build the right mind.

Life is 10% external circumstances and 90% how we react.

Have you seen Toy Story 3? I haven’t (yet). But as Heather described, there was this bear. Lots-o the Bear. He gets left behind somewhere and then, after a long journey to come home, finds that he’s been “replaced” with another Lots-o Bear. He interprets this as not being loved, as being replaceable, as being forgotten. But in actuality, the kid loved Lots-o so so much, that the parents had to instantly by another one to prevent a meltdown. What was done because he was so irreplaceable ended up making him feel replaceable. Thus, 10% what’s actually happening and 90% our reaction.

What happens is our THINKING controls our EMOTIONS, which control our ACTIONS.

But we have something Lots-o the Bear didn’t. Metacognitive abilities. It’s a big word that means
we can think about thinking. And if we can think about thinking, or control our thinking, then we can control our emotions and control our actions. Our negative thought patterns can be undone, they can be rewired.

Another big word: Quantum Zeno. That means our brain can change based on what we focus on, what we think about. That’s why we can feel trapped in the same negative thought patterns. But the good news is that means with a little work, we can PHYSICALLY change those patterns and make new positive thought patterns.

“Be still and know that I am God.” –Psalm 46:10. Do you tell yourself that? If you’re like me, when you hear this you picture meditation, sitting on a beach, or lying in a peaceful place. But, as Heather described, in Hebrew “be still” translates more directly as “to drop” and that this verse is taken not from a peaceful time, but from a battle. The Lord was telling them to drop their weapons and let God fight for them. God was describing a SOUL stillness, not a physical stillness.

See the unseen. Scientists now believe there may be 12 dimensions. 12! (Just google “Superstring theory” – it will make your head hurt!) They now think that water molecules change based on how you TALK to it – if you scream or whisper. WHAT?! The spiritual battlefield is real. The battle for our minds is real. This is not a battle won by WILL. It is winnable when the Holy Spirit is in us because He is God and He can fight it for us (for more on this, check out Francis Chan’s book Forgotten God).

The way Heather took on this battle was with the 21 Day Brain Detox by Dr. Caroline Leaf. Here’s a brief overview of the “plan,” but the full plan can be purchased online for $29, which includes Dr. Leaf’s book. (Neither Ridge MOPS nor Heather MacFadyen get anything if you purchase this or any of the books listed in RESOURCES. Just moms helping moms!) Heather uses this as her daily battle plan.

3 minute prayer. 1 min each of thanksgiving, praise, and worship.

2 minutes of gathering thoughts. Here’s your chance to be metacognitive! Think about thinking. Focus on 1 toxic thought that you often get trapped by. What happens? What do you do? What are your triggers? (We’ll talk about some examples below.)

2 minutes of journaling about what you just thought about.

Think a new thought. Decide what you will actively reach for when the negative thoughts come. Decide where you will build the new road to replace the old one.

Example 1. A common negative thought pattern for Heather (and for me, and probably for most of us) is the Fear of Missing Out (I just learned this is called F.O.M.O. That’s right, it’s so common it has an acronym!) So conquering your FOMO might look something like this:

Thanksgiving, praise, worship to the Lord. Be still, He’s got this.

Metacognitive: When I see all my friends hanging out together, without me, on Facebook, I feel left out. I wonder if they are even really my friends. I wonder why they didn’t invite me. Am I not fun? Do their kids not like my kids? Are my kids not likeable?

Journaling.

New thought: I’m not missing out if I’m in God’s will. So I will focus on being in God’s will today.

Example 2. What other people think when my kid acts out in public.

Thanksgiving, praise, and worship to the Lord. Be still, He’s got this.

Metacognitive: When my kid decides to scream and tantrum in the middle of HEB, people judge me. People are looking. People are thinking I’m a bad parent. I should make excuses for my kid, like it’s past lunchtime or naptime or snacktime or she’s a three-nager.

Journaling.

New thought: I am approved by God.

One thought at a time, we can build a FLOURISHING MIND. Or you can do this…

One final thought: “Holy things happen when you’re cleaning up poop.” It’s in my notes. Heather said it. So it must be true. Bonus points for anyone who can remind me how it related, because I can’t, but it might need to be my motto this week!